How to Write 铐 (kào) — Meaning “Handcuffs / To handcuff”

Imagine police officers using metal handcuffs (钅) to 'test' (考) a suspect's honesty. The 'test' part reminds you of the sound 'kào', and the metal radical shows it's a metal object. Picture the handcuffs clicking shut during a police test.

The left radical 钅 must be written narrow and tall, with the first stroke as a short left-falling stroke (撇), then three horizontal strokes, and a vertical hook. The right part 考 starts with a horizontal stroke that should align with the middle of the left side, and the bottom hook (亅) must not extend too far down. A common mistake is making the two sides unbalanced or writing the right side's bottom stroke too long.

铐 (kào) means 'handcuffs', with the phonetic part 考. 钙 (gài) means 'calcium', with the phonetic 丐 (gài), and 钚 (bù) means 'plutonium', with the phonetic 不 (bù). Visually, the right side is different: 考 vs 丐 vs 不, so focus on the right component to tell them apart. In usage, 铐 is about restraining, while 钙 and 钚 are chemical elements.

铐 appears in words like 手铐 (handcuffs) and 脚铐 (leg irons), mostly in legal or police contexts. It can also be used as a verb, as in 铐住 (to handcuff someone). In Chinese culture, seeing handcuffs often symbolizes crime or punishment, and this character is rarely used in everyday conversation except in news or crime dramas.

Common words containing 铐 include: 手铐 (shǒu kào) — Handcuffs.; 铐住 (kào zhù) — To handcuff / To shackle; 脚铐 (jiǎo kào) — leg irons; shackles.